This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free).
Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

Image by Chim Chim on Flickr via Creative Commons

The more I read about productivity, the less productive I become.

It seems that no matter how much I try to simplify my productivity system, I am constantly revisiting it. I do know that in the grand scheme of things it is not going to help me, but I enjoy it. I am a productivity hobbyist. And it’s killing my productivity.

Here are just some of the signs that you might be a productivity addict

You spend copious amounts of time reading blogs about GTD implementations.

You search for Microsoft Outlook GTD hacks.

You get excited when someone mentions GTD in a blog post title.

You own a moleskine notebook (and probably several for different lists).

You spent money on a posh inbox.

You miss your weekly review because you are still processing your inbox in to a million sub-folders.

You think about your GTD implementation on a daily basis.

I know these signs, because I have done all of the above and more. Now I am trying to just take action. If you want to achieve you goals, you need to stop thinking and start doing.

What it means to be a Productivity Addict

Being a productivity addict means that you know when you are wasting time therefore you worry about it more. Before you discovered the productivity sub-culture you used to waste less time surfing the internet, and when you did you didn’t worry about it. Now you worry about it. You try and work out more ways to be more productive to overcome this and the cycle continues. The time to stop is now.

12 Steps to Overcome Productivity Addiction

Admit you have a problem (leave a comment to share this).

Do not talk about productivity (just be productive).

Realised that there is only so much that you can tweak your system before you just go back to using pen and paper anyway.

Next time you hear about a new productivity programme, DO NOT sign up to the beta.

Admit the nature of your wrong doing (tell us about your addiction in the comments).

Make a list of 3 things you must do today. Do not do anything else until you have done these.

DO NOT talk about productivity club.

Do absolutely nothing related to productivity at least one day per week, just go with the flow.

Those things you keep moving from one context, list or file to another. Just do them now, or eliminate them. Stop organising them, and start doing them.

Realise that being productive means doing the things that you need to do in a timely fashion. It does not mean doing more things.

Consume only the information you need to do the single task you are concentrating on now. No more.

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, try to carry this message to productivity addicts and to practice these principles in all your affairs (modified from AA step 12)

How do you procrastinate?
Think about it, what do you do to procrastinate? I spend loads of time researching various topics on the internet, finding lots information which leads to more information. Then more and more. I’ll make a long list of things to do related to this, more websites to look at, and the spiral continues. This gives me a list of things to do, which is just another way to procrastinate actually doing the important things that I was looking at information about in the first place. Nuts I know.

Celebrating the new Poll feature in WordPress, I’ve set up a quick poll below. Please vote now!

This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free). Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

Image by bourgeoisbee on Flickr via Creative Commons

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” Larry Bird

In the 3 Ts (and an S) of Productivity Series, I am looking at the Tools, Techniques, Tips and Skills for being Productive.

I always want to be able to achieve the most possible, whilst doing the least possible (or spending the least time doing it). Therefore I’ve always tried to find systems or procedures to help me with my pursuit of this goal. I do however have to balance this with my, not perfectionist side, but my quality control which requires me to accept when ‘good is good enough’ and to be of a reasonable standard. These topics will be explored in later posts.

So here are the skills that I think you need to master in order to be productive. How are you getting on with these?

Objectives / Planning / End In Mind
I guess that this is a good place to start! Unless you have objectives for the task you are going to undertake and know what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there, then how can you be effective? If you are not clear on what you want or need to end up with then how can you find the best route to get there?

Know your own SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
SWOT is a simple way of illustrating that unless you know (or at least admit) your SWOT in achievements how can you carry out tasks effectively? Know what you are good at and focus on that, delegate other stuff you are not good at. You can change or influence your SWOT but it takes work and planning. Maybe these could be linked to your goals. See my post on SWOT analysis here.

Keep it Simple Stupid KISS.
This is an area that I am both good and bad at. I do enjoy keeping things simple, but I also am always seeking more knowledge on the subject at hand. Whilst a thirst for knowledge is by no means a bad thing, it is only seeking and acquiring the relevant knowledge to achieve a specific ends that is the skill of being effective. Constantly seeking new systems is actually not effective, you’ll probably revert to what you already know anyway.

Know when it is ‘good enough’ is Good Enough
I’m not saying that you should compromise quality to finish a job. Knowing what level of quality is required and when ‘good enough’ is Good Enough is a skill for productivity and knowing the correct level of standards for what you want to achieve.

Single Tasking (Multi-tasking is for whimps)
In modern workplaces many people think it is good to multi-task. This is the whimps way. Single tasking is the key. Remember the times when you were allowed to concentrate on just one thing? Without the constant distractions of the phone email, IM etc. chances are that you probably achieve more in less actual and elapsed time and it was probably better output. You probably created your own distractions and procrastination activities. Focus – find your zone.

Eliminate
There are several things you need to eliminate in order to use these principles.

Distractions

Unnecessary work

Unneeded work

Manufactured Emergencies

Become a master eliminator and learn to say NO!

Simplify
Is everything you are doing necessary? Are you taking the simplest route from A to B using the simplest method? The less complex you make things for yourself the more likely you are to achieve your objectives.

Quality over Quantity
This really applies to the amount and quality of work that you do rather than the individual tasks so it is the quality (using above points) of work that you do over the quantity (less hours) that is most important. Measure your results not the time you have spent on a particular activity. Eliminate to find that correct quality. Also know what is good enough.

This post is very much about what I have understood as skills for productivity so far. There is a lot of interrelation between the points and more detail behind all of them. There may also be other ones but these are what I came up with so far in a bid to keep it simple.

My idea for this post came from trying to design (based on research) my own principles for how to be productive. These are more habits/skills for to consciously work on, whilst Covey’s 7 habits are more characteristics. i.e. you either are or aren’t proactive.

What skills do you think are needed to be productive?

————-

Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free). Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

Image By Teo at Flickr via Creative Commons

“What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that’s another matter.”Peter F. Drucker

There are various types of tools that can help you in your quest to be a super productive being. They enable you to be put into practice the skills and techniques of a productivity. Tools to fulfill these requirements are increasingly being developed and refined with more and more becoming available everyday. If you are anything like me, you’ll probably enjoy discovering and trying these tools. But beware – this is essentially procrastination and you’ll probably try and justify ‘sharpening your system’ as productive work, when in fact getting stuff done is far more effective.

In this post I’m going to look at the key ‘Tools of Productivity’ that I have thus far identified. I have identified more that this, but in the interest of elimination and simplification seek to present the essentials.

Planning Tools
Remember to begin with the end in mind. In others posts I have either or will describe how planning is a great skill of a productive and effective person. I’m not using this to tell you why you should be planning (I’ll do that in another post). Just be sure that you have the right tools available.

My preferred planning tool is mind maps on paper. Paper is not constrained and this property along with mind mapping allows free flow thinking and amendments. Remember though that papers tools are not automatically backup up like online tools. If you want to try mind mapping online there are loads of free sites. I’ve tried MindMeister and is seems good.

Other planning tools: Lists, Planning software (for example MS project) I find many tools to complex for most purposes except where I am forced to use it in a professional context.

Lists
I’m a big fan of lists. I keep lists for everything. Things to do, music to buy, dreams (places to go), checklists for planning etc. I find that simple is best so I keep lists in a fairly linear fashion. However, as my lists are important to backup my brain. It’s best not to store information in your brain for a number of reasons!

I was using Gubb for my lists, but I have recently switched to Zenbe on the iPhone, and it is great that it is synced to a website for backup piece of mind.

At work I still haven’t found the right list management system for me. I’m currently using excel for it’s sorting facilities as I manage a team of people and deliverables it is quite useful for this.

Another thing to note is that I do not use Outlook at work for my to-do list management. This is for a very important reason. To keep me out of my email!

Calendar / Reminder System
You should try and schedule as much of your activity in a calendar system to enforce deadlines and make sure you do it. Notice how if something non-important is in your calendar like a staff meeting then you still give time to attend? Make the same commitment to personal high importance tasks.

For work I use Outlook , as it is the standard at my place of work. You can do fancy stuff like colour code etc. but I’ve been there done that and spend the wasted hours maintaining it with the false belief it will make things easier. For me simple is best.

For personal calendar and remind I use iwantsandy.com. I love the interaction element of this tool and I have written a review of iwantSandy here. I think that it is important to enjoy using your system and that is what Sandy gives to me. I am looking to move more of my system to Sandy as more features come available, as having everything in one place is food for the interests of keeping stuff simple.

Outsourcing / Delegation
These are great tools for getting stuff done but do require time and patience and learning for using as an effective tool. You should think of delegation at work (and personal outsourcing as appropriate) as you first option for every task. This way you can eliminate as much as you can. “Can’t someone else do it?” – make this your Mantra. See my other post on delegation.

Against the recommendations of GTD I do keep separate work and personal systems. Both of my systems are accessible from both places. I don’t want them to overlaps to that I can concentrate on the different contexts of work and home in isolation when I need to.

Email
I will write an separate post about this, but seen as email and internet are the biggest distractions in the modern workplace it is worth using the tools available to maximum benefit. Make email your slave not your master.

1) Auto-Responder – Set an out-of-office so that you can dictate when you check emails.
2) Filters – I have a CC folder for mails I am copied on which means that when I look at this folder I approach with the different mind set. I also use a waiting for filter, so that when I send an email I have @wf in the email so my filter puts a copy in my waiting for list.
3) Delete Key – Use it
4) One inbox – Email is great for capture. If someone asks you to do something say ‘can you send me an email so I don’t forget’
5) Turn off notification popups – if you don’t see the popups you’ll be less inclined to dip in to your inbox as often.
6) Turn off Auto Send/Receive – you choose when you want to get emails.

So these are the key tools in my current Productivity arsenal. I’m sure that I’ll review this post and refine it and it is something that I could go in to a lot of depth about. I wrote this post in draft a few months ago, and in that type my system has evolved and changed – I am coming to accept that this is a side effect of the productivity culture.

This post will eventually form part of a series on Productivity: Tools, Skills & Techniques.

————-

Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

This your kind of thing? Please think about subscribing via RSS or eMail (it’s free). Thanks for taking the time to visit! Chris

Here’s a post about productivity.

By Mrs. Maze, Flickr via Creative Commons

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water.Bruce Lee

I try to have leaving work routine so that I can go home and have a clear mind and switch off from work. I think that this is a very important part of productivity. By having a leaving work routine, in conjunction with your GTD and other systems, you shouldn’t find yourself waking up in the middle of the night and wondering if you send that email or phoned that person back.

I have a calendar entry called Daily Review and it appears at 4pm daily (unsurprisingly). This is serves two pruposes 1) to remind me to do my leaving work routine and 2) remind me it’s time to go.

Here’s what I try to do as part of my daily review:

1) Review what I have done today – just a couple of minutes look at the items ticked off on my list also shows you what you haven’t done and is high priority. This then enables you to…

2) Get my Inbox to Zero (or as close as I can – I try not to make my self a slave to this). This means that everything that I need to do should be captured on my to-do list.

3) Set my MITs (Most Important Things) to do the next day. For more about this I’ll let Leo over at ZenHabits explain here.

4) Tidy my desk. When I am not working from home I have a minimal ‘mobile office’ consisting of a meeting book, notebook, pad (for capture of tasks and putting my MITs for the day on), scrap paper, USB stick and Pens. At the end of the day I put it all in a plastic pouch and slip it into my laptop bag. Keeps everything together and not loose in my bag.